I just registered to the forum and I want to create a new thread, but I'm not given the option. What might be the problem?

You're listed as a new member, so you have limited forum privileges at first.

A new member can't start a new thread? Is that true?

Can't start a new thread and has no PM functions. It counters previous cases where new users [actually old users with new accounts] were sending some pretty abusive messages from the comfort of a secondary account. That's also why, mods aside, multiple logins are banned. The new threads thing is an extra layer of anti-spammer software.

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AlienTurnedHuman wrote:

Eurytus probably thought he was God. At least until he was banned. Which means if he was God, it makes me very scared of PF1-Mod.

Yes, we have a swear filter now. No, it doesn't change coffin to 'place of rest'.

Read and contribute to existing threads, and once a few posts have been made we will remove the restrictions on the account. The exact number depends how many you make before they get approved and a mod removes the restrictions, so I can't give an exact number.

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AlienTurnedHuman wrote:

Eurytus probably thought he was God. At least until he was banned. Which means if he was God, it makes me very scared of PF1-Mod.

Yes, we have a swear filter now. No, it doesn't change coffin to 'place of rest'.

Did the rule about not being able to create a new thread come from the forum owners, or at least be approved by them?

I have never ever come across a forum where you can't create a new thread until you have shown some posting history in existing threads. In fact, it would turn me away from a forum for good.

Example, I buy a new car. I have a question so I find an online forum about the car, register, create a thread and hope for some answers to my question(s).

I've done this about animals I keep as pets, about my new vacuum cleaner for goodness sake!

Surely there must be people who are interested in F1,have a question or point of view who decide to find a forum for the first time and then find they can raise their point in a thread of their own. They will simply disappear.

May go some way to explain why this years off season and start to the season is the quietest I can remember on this forum!

Forum settings force that on us. We can't lift that or the PM restriction without removing a layer of spam prevention that we have no alternative to. Everything that has been changed since the forum was upgraded has been run through management and the various techies we have had over the years. When I took over the forum I made a point of the mods being as accountable as possible, and that's one of the things the new forum helped with. I agree it's not ideal but it's the best solution we have to a problem that shouldn't exist, if that makes sense/

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AlienTurnedHuman wrote:

Eurytus probably thought he was God. At least until he was banned. Which means if he was God, it makes me very scared of PF1-Mod.

Yes, we have a swear filter now. No, it doesn't change coffin to 'place of rest'.

The spam prevention stuff should lie at the door of account creation rather than thread creation. A semi decent captcha (something that phpBB almost certainly has an addon for somewhere) will keep out all but the most sophisticated russian pharmaceutical spambot. Hell, in most cases even a checkbox asking if you are a robot on the account creation page will do unless someone takes the time to write a bot out specifically for this forum.

Appreciate this isn't a decision you can make mind, though i'd be heavily questioning the level of your 'techies' if they can't get around what is one of the fundamental problems any forum/blog/comment system maker runs into in even the smallest of projects.

_________________http://tsatr.mooo.comThe Sun and The Rain - The reluctant runner.